


Red Carnations

by MerenwenTiwele



Category: Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Hadestown - Mitchell, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Heartbreak, I kept listening to epic III in repeat for this, Kinda, Love between gods, depending on the view, happy end, heavily inspired by Hadestown Musical, if you squint real hard mentions of abuse, like real hard, lovestory, loving love, red carnations, sad end
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:00:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 952
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23876566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MerenwenTiwele/pseuds/MerenwenTiwele
Summary: Gentle love turned dullHearts turned bitterBut sometimes, all it takes is a song
Relationships: Hades/Persephone (Hadestown), Orpheus & Persephone (Hadestown)
Kudos: 12





	Red Carnations

There has been a meadow of the most beautiful flowers once, a gift from a mother to her daughter, and that daughter loved to just simply exist there. She loved to make little crowns of flowers for her friends; braiding them into her hair, their hair, her mother’s hair. Making them grow and flourish.

But that has been so many years ago she lost count. She was not that girl anymore; a child, really, to perfectly describe her naivety. She’s lived many centuries by now, or at least that was what it felt like to her, and the peaceful time in the meadow was long gone.

What happened, she asked herself often, that I grew so old?

Love happened, a voice answered her thoughts, love that grew cold.

He came before the night turned into day. He came, and to her it felt like the stars fell down to earth and illuminated her beloved meadow as the sky was dark but around her all was glowing; and when she tore her gaze he was there. She heard of him, knew him almost, but all what she heard was nothing in comparison to who was in front of her. He bend his knees to the ground and reached for her, a gentle plead, a dark carnation in his hand.

He asked, “Come home with me?”

She answered, “I will.”

Her lover was a gentle heart and carried her to his home, away from the meadow, from the sky, from her mother, and when he sat her down and with her there was just them, and no one but the birds above and earth below them were witness to their wedding; a pomegranate stained union, and oh, oh she loved him so much, she gave her heart willingly and took his in turn.

That was then, and now it’s gone. Time went by too rapidly; turned the sweet love stale and his heart to stone, leaving her longing and loving, and him longing and despaired. Walls were built, souls were taken, flowers wilted, and Seasons forgotten.

That was in another life, she thought, in another world.

I wish I was still that young girl.

His love became possessive. His touch became bruising; not bruising to her skin, but her heart, aching to be touched again like it had been so long ago, and she yearned, and suffered, and drowned herself in the burning taste of summer and wine before returning to his side, but still, she ached, she yearned. He kept gifting her things, kept changing, kept pacing forward; he clad her in the finest riches he found in his endless labour; he shackled her from wrist to wrist, but never managed to tie her to the golden cage he set for her. He broke, and she broke with him; and all began to suffer.

She didn’t ask, “Where is the man with red carnations in his hands?”  
She didn’t ask, “Who stands in the garden with nothing to lose but his heart?”

Love was dull and just a memory before another one came. Song was on his lips, a love lost but not forgotten, a love he would give his all for, and she was drawn in by him, fascinated, revived. He made her remember what love meant, and her wilted heart bloomed again whilst listening to his song, drunken on love and hope, hope she deemed as lost as love, and her gaze fell once again to her lover, and she pleaded, pleaded for him to hear the other one out, to give him a chance, before her heart became dull and grey again.

Heavy and hard is the heart of the king, she thought,

When will enough be enough?

And her lover let the searcher and singer in, into halls of stone and iron and rust and lost ones, and he did not lose himself. He pleaded to be heard, and then strummed his lyre, and the song played again. She was struck, her heart began to ache again, not dull, but vibrant, loud; and with every note the hall began to light up in gold. Darkness and cold fled before the warm golden hues; stone and iron melted together into new forms, rust shed and left everything bare. She closed her eyes as she listened, and her eyes shed tears as she let herself be carried into the tune, tears that turned into petals drifting in the melody;

There once was a girl, she thought, who would love this love I feel.

There once was a man, he thought, who lost his way in love.

And then there wasn’t the dark and rusted hall anymore. There was a meadow with the most beautiful flowers one has ever seen, and they glowed, and gentle wind caressed her cheeks. She tore her gaze from the flowers and found her lover standing there, falling onto his knees before her, reaching a hand with dark carnations to her, reluctantly, asking, afraid. He pleaded, with her, with himself, as the stone shed from his heart and he found love again, and silently she took his hand, and they danced, danced to the song of the birds and the sky and the earth and the flowers and of that other one who sang, and they were boy and girl again, man and woman, lovers not in word but in heart.

And when the spring wind carried her away as he always did she asked, “Wait for me?”

And this time he was the one who answered, “I will”

And so goes the story of Hades and Persephone, who would have never found back to each other if not for Orpheus, who lost his love in turn.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I actually wrote this while prcrastinating university studies right now and listening to the original live cast of HAdestown on spotify, so yea. It is HEAVILY inspired by that awesome musical AND my general love for the whole story! I hope you enjoyed it <3


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